I just watched a load of first album Wu Tang videos back to back. It was the best 15 minutes of Youtubing I think I've ever done. I decided I'd post the 'C.R.E.A.M' video because it's probably my favourite song from the album.

So you can be arrested and detained for 9 hours with counter-terrorism officers in your home for making public, information that's in the public's interest before the government get the "Chance" to tell us? Is that what's going on here? Interesting because I didn't know that. I heard Gordon Brown on the radio this morning saying he knew nothing about it, which seems strange. This isn't the first time this Autumn that Brown has used the police to make a point though is it? Didn't he say that George Osbourne's meeting with the Russian Oligarch was a matter for the police? Despite there having been no crime committed? But it made headlines didn't it? Whether through threat or promise it appears that the police are very much being used as a tool for government oppression. Nice.

Thursday, 27 November 2008

The way this guy changed the game. All you can do is admire. There's not a bone of pretention in him, not all of his videos are classics but he can make the simplest shoot look very hot. I think every artist in tune with the internet within hip-hop today is inspired by Rik Cordero in some way. I know I am.

I did not know it was going to be so UK on the site today I swear. I just found out Blak Twang has a blog. I met Twang a couple of times, once when I was wearing my traffic warden uniform outside Deal Real. I was at his last album launch too. That was a good night. Estelle was there, she didn't quite light up the stage. She's a lot better now. Sway was there that night too actually.

Speaking of Killer P. This record he did with The Bug and Flowdan goes so very hard. It has to be played at top volume preferably in a car with the windows down but it's cold outside so it may not be the best idea. Shock out in your house though.

I have a love/hate relationship with Roll Deep. Maybe that's harsh...on both sides. I fuck with them though, they're pioneers and they very reactive, I don't like when they deal with Trident, I personally really don't like Trident and I really don't like the Police. But Killer-P is down from day and he fucking murks this record. I like what they did with the BNP list too. That's definitely one of the things I like about Roll Deep, they'll flip any situation.

It's UK day pretty much. This is a little teaser video for the new Newham Generals single 'Violence' this shit is extra. When is Dizzee gonna pull them off the shelf? Does he still have Klass-A over there? They were hot for a minute, that 'Milly' track went hard. I need to find that actually.

You might recognise that pitch from the 'That One Time' video, that's because it's the endz. I had no idea this was being filmed. Shout outs to Asher-D who I was in 'Storm Damage' with and who Jack went to school with. We actually caught up at the 'Boom (Smash Stuff)' launch a while back.

Keeping the UK theme going. I just got given the new single from Tinchy Stryder. His first [?] on Island Records. You can hear a snippet above, it features Taio Cruz. I don't know why but I'm much happier for Tinchy Stryder to be the guy who can make a Taio Cruz record work than I am about a few other Grime MCs trying to "Crossover". I think I believe Tinchy. Without trying to patronise him, I think he's genuine, most of the other guys have been soured by industry politics and Tinchy seems to brush it off. Plus his ratio of good verses is way higher than most in the scene. The single is out in January, be on the look out for the video and the remix which features Sway and Chipmunk. Sway's the other dude I think can carry the "Pop" edge in his music well.

Dont Phone Me - Ghetto ft. GriminalI first heard this on Semtex's site. I went on Youtube to find a stream and they didn't have one, but I found this link on Way More Fresher. It's not the best link but you get the idea. This song is uber-extra. Ghetts will keep grime on his back while everybody else gets fruity with it.

So after about 11 years of confusion a line has finally been drawn. It turns out that the recession has made Labour transmorph into...get this...Labour! I know right? I couldn't believe it either! They bought some banks and taxed the rich! They played the fence on most major issues over the last 11 years while they implemented totally socialist policy locally and in the civil service. Now, when they had to go left or right they went all the way left. Could they have gone more left with it? I don't think so. I guess they could have included the word "Union" somewhere in the budget but beyond that...It's now Britain's choice, more than ever it is Britain's choice, it's Left Vs. Right, for the first time in about 20 years, Cameron can't sit in the centre anymore. He's been edging away from it the last few months anyway but now they've got a George Osbourne finding his voice (I weedy little fruit of a voice but a voice nonetheless) and a back bench starting to make names for themselves it's going to be an interesting 2009.

So Alfamega put the hurt on some people at some awards ceremony in the US yesterday. I may have mentioned on this site before that I fucks with Alfamega. He goes extra-extra, that's kinda my shit right now, just extra-extra. As much as T.I sucks these days he's pretty untouchable with Alfamega and Maino backing him up. I wish I liked Maino but he's yet to impress me, I try to enjoy his music as well, I truly do.

Apparently Young Jeezy's crew were made to hurt by La The Darkman's crew at the same event. I had a feeling Drama and Jeezy weren't getting on anymore but I guess this confirms it. No more 'Trap Or Die'? Fuck a Dip Set reunion we need a Drama and Jeezy reunion!

One thing's for sure, hip-hop awards ceremonies can not continue! They are a plague! They're like their own gang that account for a large percentage of the black on black crime rate across the globe!

Monday, 24 November 2008

With Wayne doing as well as he did, maybe nonsense raps with god like flows will do it for Busta all over again? This is a hot song and I can imagine it slaughtering a club even if it is just kinda 'A Millie Part 2'.

The only place you can buy a new album in Brixton is Woolworths. We need to save Woolworths. I just bought this, I need to go record now, then I will listen. I can't believe my boy Mr Hudson is on a track! I did a couple of shows with Mr Hudson and The Library when we first got deals at the same time. The first show we did together was a gig we did for GoodBooks. Those Deal Real boys must be proud. Shout outs to them man.

I was checking out Eddie Argos's blog today and decided I would finally find an hour in my day to listen to his favourite podcast from Andrew Collins and Richard Herring and it's pretty excellent. Get involved here.

Jeres (aka Jeremy Allen) and Akira The Don (aka Obama Won*) have combined to write a tidy little comic strip for a music paper that has never, to my knowledge shown me any love. I could be wrong, but I rarely am...as you know. This is part 1 of A Serge Of Life which you can read in the latest issue of Stool Pigeon. Which as I mentioned before, doesn't seem to register my existence, as far as I know, I haven't actually read one in a while, but then it's been a recession and I haven't really been in the kind of place you'd pick one up. I plan to phone Jeres to see if he can arrange me a little cameo in the next strip so I can officially say I've been in Stool Pigeon. I don't mind people that don't write about me, I read an article on The Guardian website about a week in the NME office and they mention how important Alex Miller is these days, he showed me love back in the '06, so much so that my label panicked and thought I was about to sign a deal with Warner Brothers where I would be able to keep my original name (which I am pretty much bringing back next year), so they cock-blocked me and offered me an album deal which ended up taking so long that a lot of people forgot about me. Ho hum. They will remember though...I'm very off topic. This comic is great. I wish I had comic drawing/writing skills. Girls love guys with skills. My comics would probably be about weed or rap music or zombies, or all three. Actually, how kick shit awesome would that comic strip be? Why am I almost 99% sure it already exists?

*I'm currently calling Akira "Obama Won" (although he does not know this) because the night Obama won, or should I say morning, I got a call, I woke up, reached for my phone, saw it was Akira, turned to my girl and said "Obama won", turned off my phone and went back to sleep with Curb Your Enthusiasm timing, as I put the phone down the theme tune should have started. Wait. I'll find it on Youtube.

Sunday, 16 November 2008

The kid David Haye stepped up last night against Monte Barrett. It was a really enjoyable fight, I'd say Haye is absolutely what the heavyweight division needs right now and it was good to see Vitali Klitchko in attendance hyping a title fight but I don't think we learned too much about David. He took a few shots and I admire the fact that he could probably have put Barrett down in the 3rd or 4th, by the time the 5th came along it seemed like the Monte Barrett desperation levels could have put Haye down for the count, which is dangerous. Could he go 12 with Rahman? I'd like to think so but I don't know so. Can he put Vitali or Vladimir down? I'd like to think so but I don't know. Hopefully he'll get another top 10 in the Spring and fight a Klitchko, at The Emirates Stadium in the summer. I just pitched it, there you go Haye, make it happen. I heard they're talking about boxing events at The Emirates, now's the time, this is as big as a UK fight is going to be for a while. You know Britain loves a heavyweight that can put a guy down.

Psychologically, the way Monte Barrett entered the ring must have had an effect.

Wednesday, 12 November 2008

This video is awesome for so many reasons. Can you count them? I mean...seriously? Why did I only see this for the first time tonight? Has it been on "Urban" Music channels? I don't watch those. This is excellent.

Okay so I've decided to list the reasons this video is great...in order...

1. Back to the Future motif.2. It's very 80s.3. The production is nice.4. Greg Nice is on it! Rapping!5. Is that the other member of Neptunes? Chad?6. This song is pretty nice.7. Russell Simmons just checked his coat.8. DJ Enuff's got the moves.9. Back to the Future car!10. Back to the Future lightning effect!11. The real Doc Brown Christopher Lloyd is getting out of that Delorian!12. Is that Swizz Beats?13. Other famous people I don't recognise!14. Music stopped. Christopher Lloyd is talking to O'Neal.15. He wants to go back to the future! Yey!16. Lloyd is killing it! He wants to go to 2088.17. The car drove off, the street is on fire and bang, the lightning is back.18. O'Neal now has a shiney future suit. Like Puffy.19. Greg Nice is back. He really works in this context.20. Christopher Lloyd is DJ'ing in the future. GENIUS.21. This song gets better the longer it goes on.22. Ha! A list of credits!23. That was Swizz Beats.24. Ralf McDaniels is a name I hear in rap songs a lot but I don't know who that is.

Bad news sports fans. That band they made on Hollyoaks are releasing a single...I know, I know...Dirty Diegos will release their single 'Play' this month and will perform the song live on the soap. You can watch the video HERE. The fact that I was not able to encode it will tell you which label it's being released on.

I got very sick of the phrase "Boom and Bust" a few weeks back but when you look at the posters New Labour ran over the last 11 years it's pretty incredible the way they fucked it all up. Today we have the announcement that unemployment reaches 11 year high. I wonder what happened 11 years ago? The economy they inherited, all they needed to do was safeguard it and they'd be in power forever, voters in this country will vote based on their house price and perceived quality of life. What do New Labour offer at this point? The Bank of England say Britain has been in a recession since the middle of 2008. I thought it was a "Credit Crunch" and then a "Global Economic Downturn"? What nice phrases they are to keep people from saying my current catchphrase "Recession". I'm hearing that the next quarter's readings on the subjects of unemployment and interest rates will be even more alarming. Yey. Merry Christmas everybody!

This is an old video but I stumbled across it again this morning. With the internet the way it is, people forget about great media 6 months after the fact, I want to give people's mixtapes, freestyles and videos a little bit more credit than that. This is an epic song. Absolutely epic.

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

A lady by the name of Sam Mason was fired from the BBC today for alleged racist statements towards an Asian cab driver. Read the news story here. She's a prick and deserved to lose her job. She needs to educate her daughter. But what really offends me is the fact that they mention she's from Clifton. I lived in Clifton for 6 weeks last summer recording my album. I didn't encounter any racism...I don't think...naw. I don't think so. Maybe behind my back? I doubt it. Sean wouldn't stand for that. Sean will fight you for that. That's how me and Sean roll. Bob, Tim and Andy don't get involved with other people's business but if Sean heard you being racist he'd spit in your eye. And rightly so. So if you're ever in Clifton, mainly Princess Victoria Street or anywhere around The Village. Tell them you know Marvin. Whatever race you are they'll sow you love. Ask for Sean. You buy him a drink!

Take a couple of minutes today to think about the cost of war. Think about the people who go and fight for their country, for you, for the other side, for what they believe in. Don't just think about today, you can hate every war there has ever been but you can appreciate what it takes to go out there and actually do it. There have been times in history when the sending of men and women to die was absolutely necessary to preserve what little balance we had on the planet and to prevent the further senseless murders of innocent people around the globe. We are still losing lives abroad in service to us. We will always be in debt to the military men and women who are ready to fight on our behalf for our freedoms.

I've been on the fence but to be honest, is Kanye singing really that different to Kanye rapping? He can do way more with less syllables than most rappers can do period. I'm feeling this 'Robocop' record. The beat is bizzonkers and the song is catchy as hell. 'Love Lockdown' didn't do it for me straight away but it was definitely a grower. I'm really excited to hear the album now, I'm hoping for something like Pet Shop Boys meets Gnarls Barklay.

Buzzcocks is one of my favourite shows on television. I am a huge Mark Lamarr fan and never dreamed they'd be able to replace him, I remember talk of him leaving the show for about 3 years before he finally did it do. But when Simon Amstell took the job it seemed that the show may have actually gotten better. I'm not T4's biggest fan on the whole. It shows The Simpsons and Hollyoaks so I put up with it occasionally but frankly I think it's absolutely lost touch with the audience it once commanded (it's the 10 year anniversary this year!), so I didn't get to see too much of Amstell on Popworld where he made his name. What I saw I found funny but I was never sure how much of his shtick was manufactured by clever editing. I remember him on Nickelodeon when he was younger though, not many people will. The last couple of series of Buzzcocks have made it an absolute favourite of mine because of his fearless bear baiting of B and sometimes C-List celebrities. Having the relief of a genuinely funny Bill Bailey was without doubt a great leveler for Amstell who seems to enjoy Bailey's brand of traditional comedy as much as we do. Phil Jupitus is a generally great guy, he knows a lot about music, I don't mean a lot like a lot, I mean, Phil Jupitus really knows music. He's pretty funny when he wants to be but that's not really his role.

This series has been something of a damp squib though. Bill Bailey's obviously making thousands and thousands of pounds touring and voicing things for people so it's understandable that he's decided to call his time on Buzzcocks but he really should have been replaced. Switching captains every week isn't working. As James Wignall pointed out in The Guardian over the weekend. Jack Dee, Bob Mortimer and Johnny Vegas plugged the hole to an extent but they never got comfortable enough to extend beyond their relative comfort zones while James Cordon was just awful, I mean, really shocking.

In the last series when Bailey was away for a few episodes they replaced him with Noel Fielding who did the job adequately. He's probably not available to take the job on a full time basis (he's busy over promoting The Mighty Boosh). They've got to come up with something though, the chemistry isn't there at the moment, the guests are getting away with being shit (Amstell let that Glasvegas guy slide completely) and you know how ready the BBC are to take a potentially brilliant show and put it's stars in regular light entertainment broadcasting over at BBCThree. We don't want an Amstell clip show, or an Amstell sit-com. We really don't.

Sunday, 9 November 2008

I couldn't stay up for the fight last night. I thought about it but I had a tough day and it would have killed me. I caught the replay this morning though and it was incredible by all rights. I watched some of the build-up where they showed some of the defining rounds of Calzaghe and Jones' careers. They are two of the most important boxers of my lifetime without a doubt. Hopkins too, but Calzaghe took them both this year and has absolutely nothing left to prove. He really did a job last night, Jones was a god damned soldier though. That cut could have done some serious damage and you could see the exhaustion but he didn't stop for 12 rounds. Classic boxing. Amazing. I will watch the replay a few times over the next couple of days.

Shout outs to the Brixton Bomber Danny Williams too. He went down at York Hall pretty much ending his career. Which is sad, but it's worth remembering some of his great fights, Tyson, Harrison, Skelton, Sam, Klitchko. He's a legend.

So I heard Dizzee smacked it before I heard there were some angry people on Facebook. I watched the video and agreed that Dizzee smacked it. He didn't pretend to want to enter into a debate, he wanted to express an opinion and he didn't want to make it look like he was speaking for anybody other than himself. Beautiful. How many rappers/actors/singers attempt to speak for their "Generation" and end up sounding like twats? Dizzee did manage to speak for his generation but that wasn't his intention. So I've since read the Facebook "Rant" about how negative a role model Dizzee Rascal is and how in America they get great role models like Jay-Z to talk about politics. I don't even know where to begin with that one. Then the person suggested couple of British examples who could have gone on Newsnight including Lewis Hamilton -that dude, hero, no question, lives in Switzerland, goes out with a Pussycat Doll and drives a car 150MPH for a living, just saying. Then they mention that maybe Bashy should have gone on the show...no fucking comment.

UPDATE: Shout outs to DJ Semtex and Bashy. I love how this blogging thing works. It's not even 3PM. Politics being debated in a hip-hop context, across blogs can only be a good thing. I'm reading the comments though and I'm alarmed by the word "Educated". Did Dizzee not go to school? I think he did. A product of the British Education system like me, I don't know how well he did, but I don't know how well Lewis Hamilton did either? I know I didn't do very well. Does that make my opinion less valid than the next man's? I'd really like to know.

Example phoned me yesterday to ask if I wanted to support him on a couple of dates this week. I couldn't do Southampton on Friday, even though I love Southampton, last time I was there was with Lethal and Skinnyman and it pretty much went down. Although my boy Steven lost the microphone to his camera that day and I'm pretty sure Jack lost his digital camera (the early part of any tour is quite discombobulating). Anyway, I did say I'd help Example out in Brighton on Sunday at Audio, which is a +16 gig. They're always great. If you're in the Brighton area there are a few tickets on the door I'm told.

So since opening the Marvin [The Martian] Shop... I've had emails, Facebook messages and MySpace messages asking if you can buy a Devil In The Distance album promo. I have very few of them. Very, very few, but I did find a bag on Friday filled with envelopes which had been stuffed with album promos and 'That One Time' Promos set to go out to press, radio and promoters in the summer. So I technically have more than I thought I did when I set up the shop. Does that mean I'm going to sell them? Maybe. I'm technically not allowed but having attempted to arrange a physical release of my album for the last few weeks I'm on the back foot somewhat. You guys want the album, I want to give it you, you guys don't trust iTunes, and so you shouldn't. I'm not going to say how many copies I have but it's a seriously low amount. Like I doubt I could have it up for sale for anything longer than 24 hours.

I'm thinking about it. Maybe a package deal, you can get 'That One Time EP', 'I Hate My Job' and 'Devil In The Distance' for £14 or something. That way I can definitely shift this excess stock [which has been moving nicely by the way. Thanks to everybody whose bought].

Saturday, 1 November 2008

I moved a couple of months back. I have a load of stock lying around and haven't got any immediate plans to gig (I'm sorry). I'm really trying to spend the winter in the studio getting ready to unleash a couple of new projects in the new year, so I figured I'd let you guys get first dibs on what it is I gots...

The first thing is something I should have had on the site for a while. It's a limited edition "12 vinyl we did last December for 'Get By'. It's got really nice artwork, it's got 'Devil In The Distance' as a B-Side and it was never commercially released! This was pressed up for select DJs and press, I've seen it do decent business on eBay over the last year and I don't have a JPEG. So I've made this one. It makes it look like a white label which it's not, in many ways it's rarer, no shop had this record.

'Get By'/ 'Devil In The Distance' Limited Edition "12 £7 + £1 P&P

Tracklisting.

A Side: Get By (Be Good)B Side: Devil In The Distance

The next piece of stock is my first official single 'I Hate My Job'. This did come out in your HMVs and whatnots but that was 2006 (2006? Crazy!). The B-Side to the single was 'Music Man' which was actually meant to be my first single but it had sample clearance issues. I love this CD single. If my USP for 'Get By'/'Devil In The Distance' was that it was rare then I guess my USP for 'I Hate My Job'/'Music Man' is that it's classic. So unspoiled by expectation of the business, so innocent, so natural.

'I Hate My Job' CD Single £3 + £0.70 P&P

Tracklisting.

1. I Hate My Job2. Music Man

The third piece of stock is extremely rare. So rare in fact that I only have about 15 left myself. But 15 aren't doing me much good sitting in a box so I figured I'd put them here. I'm not really sentimental like that. 'That One Time EP' was originally a single, 'That One Time' obviously, but we kept stocking up the remixes, 'That One Time Aidan Lavelle Remix', 'That One Time Lillica Libertine Remix', 'Boyspot', the extremely rare 'Formerly...' (once the title track to a "Best of" album thing we were doing that we never did) and one of my favourite album tracks 'Fight Or Flee'. This CD was never released in shops so I have promos with nice fully designed artwork complete with hand designed back cover (oh yes).

'That One Time EP' CD £5 + £0.70 P&P

Tracklisting.

1. That One Time2. Boyspot3. Fight Or Flee4. Formerly...5. That One Time (Lillica Libertine Remix)6. That One Time (Aidan Lavelle's Lizard Mix)

I may have a few other bits and pieces lying around. Not sure. I will endeavour to enclose a classic flyer and badge in each package.

Devil In The Distance

My name is Marvin [The Martian]. I am a rapper, my debut album 'Devil In The Distance' came out Summer 2008 through NoCarbon/Universal. This is my blog. I run it with help from Tego and my producer Jack Nimble. If you want to get at me, hit me on my email whylout(at)hotmail.com.